Civilization 7's leaders represent a major break with the series' traditions, in that they're completely separated from the civilization you choose. You can mix and match with total freedom. Want Ben Franklin to lead the Romans? Sure. Pharaoh Hatshepsut at the head of the Mayans? You bet. However, while you'll choose a new civilization for each of the three acts, your leader will remain the same throughout. So picking one is the most consequential playstyle choice you'll make before starting that first turn.
Leaders also come with a couple attributes, which can include Cultural, Diplomatic, Economic, Expansionist, Militaristic, and Scientific. These open up special perk trees you'll unlock as you go that are similar to civics in past Civ games. It's unclear at this point whether each leader will only get perk points in their listed attributes, or if they just get those types of points more often. However, everyone can get Wildcard points, which you can spend in any tree.
Here are all of the leaders we know about so far:
Unique ability: Warrior-Queen of Zazzau. +1 Resource Capacity in Cities. +1 Gold per Age for each Resource assigned to Cities. +5 Combat Strength on all Units in Plains and Desert.
Our advice: It seems like Zazzau will be a strong pick for making money and winning early wars (assuming you can fight in flat terrain). You'll also likely want to get trade going fairly early to be able to fill all of those extra resource slots.
Attributes (base game): Diplomatic, Expansionist
Unique ability (base game): Dhammaraja. +1 Food in Cities for every 5 excess Happiness. +10% Food in all Settlements during a Celebration. All Buildings gain a +1 Happiness Adjacency for all Improvements.
Agenda (Base Game): Without Sorrow: Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount with the player with the highest Happiness yield. Decrease Relationship by a Medium Amount with the player that has the lowest Happiness yield.
Attributes (World Conqueror Persona): Diplomatic, Militaristic
Unique Ability (World Conqueror Persona): Devaraja: Increased Production in Cities for excess Happiness beyond a set amount. Increased Production in Settlements not founded by you. Declaring a Formal War grants a Celebration. Large increase to Combat Strength against Fortified Districts for all Units during a Celebration.
Agenda (World Conqueror Persona): Without Regret: Decrease Relationship by a Medium Amount with the Leader whose lands cover the most tiles and Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount for the one with the least.
Our advice: India is often a food and population boom civ in these games, and it seems like Ashoka can turn any civ he leads into one fairly easily. Grow fast and remain stable with happiness bonuses. This is even more important in Civ 7, since you need population growth to build improvements.
Unique ability: Imperium Maius. +2 Production in the Capital for every Town. Can purchase Culture Buildings in Towns. +50% Gold towards purchasing Buildings in Towns.
Agenda: Restitutor Orbis. Decrease Relationship by a Medium Amount for each Town in other players' empires. Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount for each City (excluding Capital) in other players' empires.
Our advice: Towns in Civ 7 are not quite full cities, as they don't have a production queue, but can be improved by spending gold. This is even cheaper for Augustus, and his bonuses encourage you to have many Towns to feed the production of the Capital. All roads lead to Rome, as it were. It seems like a really fun playstyle, reminiscent of Civ 5's Venice, which still remains probably my favorite civ in the series.
Attributes (Emperor): Economic, Militaristic Attributes
Unique Ability (Emperor): Empereur des Français. Reduces the Trade Route capacity for a target civilization and causes massive Grievances. Gets bonus Gold per Age for every leader he's Unfriendly or Hostile with, but less Gold per Age for every leader who sees him as Friendly or Helpful.
Attributes (Revolutionary): Cultural, Militaristic
Unique Ability (Revolutionary): La Grande Armée. Gives all army commanders extra movement and granting Culture each time he defeats an enemy unit.
Our advice: Emperor Napoleon sounds like a lot of fun for an experienced player, since he's all about picking fights. His ability is extremely powerful too, to make up for the fact that you're going to want everyone to hate you most of the time. If you want a little bit less of a chaotic campaign, his Revolutionary persona simply offers some straightforward ways to pump up your culture when fighting.
Unique ability: Keju. Increased Growth Rate in Cities. Increased Science from Specialists.
Agenda: Guanxi. Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount for having the most Specialists in an empire. Decrease Relationship by a Small Amount for the leader with the least amount of Specialists in an empire. Only triggers if Confucius has at least one Specialist.
Starting Biases: Grassland
Our advice: Like India, China has often been a civ focused on growth in this series, but also science. Since in Civ 7 you will often be making a choice between building a new improvement or assigning a specialist, it seems like Confucius will favor playing tall, with less sprawl and more dense city centers.
Unique ability: TBA
Unique ability: God's Wife of Amun. Adds Culture for every imported Resource. Increased Production towards the construction of Buildings and Wonders in Cities adjacent to Navigable Rivers.
Agenda: Wonders of Iteru. Decrease Relationship by a Small Amount if you have more Wonders than Hatshepsut. Increase Relationship by a Medium Amount if you have less Wonders.
Starting Biases: Navigable Rivers, Desert
Our advice: Hatshepsut likes to build and trade. However, her bonuses are heavily dependent on geography, which is going to play a big role in where you choose to settle your cities. More than other rulers, it seems, she may be reliant on picking a civilization that has harmonious bonuses to get the most out of her abilities.
Unique ability: TBA
Unique Ability: Seven Cities of Gold. Gain Gold every time you discover a Natural Wonder, increased if the Natural Wonder is in Distant Lands. Receive additional tile yields from Natural Wonders, additional Gold towards purchasing Naval Units, and reduced Gold maintenance costs for Naval Units.
Agenda: Wonderlust. Decrease Relationship by a Large Amount per Natural Wonder in the player's borders. If no Natural Wonders are possessed by the player, Increase Relationship by a Small Amount.
Starting Biases: Coast, Natural Wonders
Unique Ability: Il Principe. Gain additional Influence per Age. Gain a set amount of Gold per Age when your Diplomatic Action proposals are accepted, or even more Gold per Age when they are rejected. Ignore Relationship requirements for declaring Formal Wars. You can Levy Military Units from City-States you are not Suzerain of.
Agenda: The Spider: If not at war with Machiavelli, increase Relationship by Medium Amount for each other war.
Unique ability: Nicaakiyakoolaakwe. Increases Food, Production, and Combat Strength based on the number of allied City-States.
Agenda: Suzerain of the World. Decrease Relationship by a Large Amount when a player disperses an Independent, and Increase Relationship by a Small Amount if player does not have an active "Befriend Independent" Project active.
Starting Biases: Grassland, Plains
Our advice: True to his historical alliance-building, Tecumseh is going to want to unite lots of smaller powers across the map into a strong confederation. Food and production are good for everyone, but the bonus to combat strength will especially help players going for a militaristic playstyle.
Unique ability: Hai Bà Trưng. Gain a set number of free Promotions on your first Commander. Your Commanders gain additional experience. Gain increased Science in Cities on Tropical tiles; this bonus is increased during any Formal War you declare.
Agenda: Van Minh: Decrease Relationship by Medium Amount with the player who has the greatest amount of Promotions across all Commanders. If tied, Decrease Relationship a Small Amount with tie holders. Increase Relationship by Medium Amount with the player who has the least amount of Promotions across all Commanders. If tied, Increase Relationship a Small Amount with tie holders.
Starting biases: Vegetated, Tropical
Attributes (Base game): Economic, Militaristic
Unique ability (Base game): Crusher of Rebellions. Increased Combat Strength for Units that are attacking in neutral or enemy territory. Gain Culture and Gold per Age upon capturing a Settlement for the first time. Gain increased Gold in all Settlements, increased even further in Settlements not founded by you. Increased Settlement limit per Age.
Agenda (Base game): Lord of Fire. Decrease Relationship by a Medium Amount when a player is not at war. Increase Relationship by a Small Amount when a player is at war.
Starting Biases (Base game): Desert
Attributes (The Achaemenid Persona): Cultural, Economic
Unique ability (The Achaemenid Persona): Silk Road: Increased Trade Route limit with all other leaders. Creating a Trade Route or Road with a Merchant provides Culture and Gold per Age. Increased Culture and Gold per Age on Unique Buildings and Unique Improvements.
Agenda (The Achaemenid Persona): Lord of Coin. Decrease Relationship by a Medium Amount if player has a greater or equal number of Trade Routes compared to Xerxes. Increase Relationship by a Small Amount if player has fewer Trade Routes than Xerxes.
Starting Biases (The Achaemenid Persona): Desert
Our advice: Xerxes' base game persona sounds pretty straightforward: Go to war, take other people's towns, and make money doing. The Archaemenid Persona, which comes with the Deluxe Content Pack DLC, will be better for players who'd rather concentrate their civic planning to a smaller territory.
We've only seen a handful of Civ 7's leaders so far, so keep an eye out as Firaxis reveals more and we ponder how best to play them. A lot more than the way leaders work is changing, too: Here's everything we learned about Civilization 7 after visiting Firaxis to play it ourselves.
